William Allen White Quotes

If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own... how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.

William Allen White(In Our Town, 1906)

Peace without justice is tyranny.

William Allen White(Quoted in the Selected Letters of William Allen White, 1899 - 1943)

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.

William Allen White

If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.

William Allen White(Forty Years on Main Street, 1937)

He knew no better than he did. He talked from the wisdom of his own heart, out of the experience of his own life and out of the vanity of his own hopes.

William Allen White(Masks in a Pageant, 1928)

Reason has never failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.

William Allen White(Quoted in A Man from Kansas: The Story of William Allen White, 2005)

There is no insanity so devastating in man's life as utter sanity.

William Allen White(Forty Years on Main Street, 1937)

Live for today. Multitudes of people have failed to live for today.... What they have had within their grasp today they have missed entirely, because only the future has intrigued them.

William Allen White

Since others have to tolerate my weaknesses, it is only fair that I should tolerate theirs.

William Allen White

A story is a curious thing, that grows with a kind of consciousness of its own.

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

So, dear friend, put fear out of your heart. This nation will survive, this state will prosper, the orderly business of life will go forward if only men can speak in whatever way given them to utter what their hearts hold - by voice, by posted card, by letter or by press. Reason never has failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world.

Liberty is the only thing you can't have unless you give it to others.

William Allen White

Lady Luck has been good to me and I fancy she has been good to everyone. Only some people are dour, and when she gives them the come hither with her eyes, they look down or turn away and lift an eyebrow. But me, I give her the wink and away we go.

William Allen White(Quoted in A Man from Kansas: The Story of William Allen White, 2005)

The emotion called love and its twin desire hunger, are the two primal passions of life.

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

A little learning is not a dangerous thing to one who does not mistake it for a great deal.

William Allen White

Man is a blowhard. He likes to lie - not in malice but to stimulate his vanity. And, curiously, he doesn't seem to care whether the lie he tells in one hour fits the lie he tells the next.

William Allen White(Boys - Then and Now, 1926)

Greatness, generally speaking, is an unusual quantity of a usual quality grafted upon a common man.

William Allen White(Masks in a Pageant, 1928)

Always remember this: Happiness is from the heart out - not from the world in.

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange glamorous thing is going to happen and it happens at fairly regular intervals.

William Allen White

Only as our hearts react on life, do we get happiness or misery, not from the events that follow the procession of days.

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself.

William Allen White

Whoever tramples on the plea for justice temperately made in the name of peace only outrages peace and kills something fine in the heart of man which God put there when we got our manhood.

What is this irrational current of the stuff of life, that carries us all in its sway, that brings us to earth, that guides our destinies here - makes so vastly for our happiness or woe, gives us strength or makes us weak, teaches us wisdom or leads us into folly unspeakable, and all unseen, unmeasured and infinitly mysterious!

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

Happiness and character are inseperable, but how easy it is to be happy in a great, beautiful house; or to be unhappy if it comes to that in a great, beautiful house.

William Allen White(In the Heart of a Fool, 1918)

For him who would be wise, wisdom is nearer at hand than it was before our generation went to work.

William Allen White(Boys - Then and Now, 1926)

I fear vastly more a futile, incompetent old age than I do any form of death.

William Allen White(Forty Years on Main Street, 1937)

William Allen White Biography

Born: February 10, 1868Died: January 29, 1944

William Allen White was a American author, newseditor and politician. He was very popular during his time mainly because of his writings and his involvement in politics.

Notable Works

In Our Town (1906)In the Heart of a Fool (1918)Boys - Then and Now (1926)Masks in a Pageant (1928)Forty Years in Main Street (1937)